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Saturday, November 30, 2013

The theme of overcoming and God's prophetic clock in Daniel & 1 John



Daniel 7:13-14 “I kept looking in the night visions,And behold, with the clouds of heaven
One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. 14 “And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away;
And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed."

Introduction & review:
A couple of days ago we had been studying our way through the Book of Daniel in conjunction with the epistles of John.  As we prepare to enter back into the Book of Daniel today, I remind the reader of our last time in Daniel, which the reader can review at: http://pastormahlon.blogspot.com/2013/11/gods-hand-and-spiritual-discernment-in.html

God's prophetic clock revealed in Daniel 7-8
Today we continue on in our study of Daniel and John's epistles once again.  May the Lord richly bless you as you read this series of blogs and glean from both Daniel's book and the Apostle John's books. 

Daniel 7-8 is a remarkable section in Daniel for a couple of reasons. For one thing Daniel 7-8 was composed some ten years before the events of Daniel 5-6, meaning that even with the Book of Daniel itself there is detailed fulfilled prophecy of near events. Undoubtedly when Daniel composed the Book of Daniel, the Holy Spirit had him arrange the visions in a certain topical arrangement. The crown jewel included in these visions of Daniel 7-8 is found in the above opening verse in today's post - Daniel 7:13-14.  Daniel sees in visions the Pre-incarnate Christ in heaven approaching the throne of the Father, sharing in equal glory and power.  

A second feature of these two chapters is that Daniel is switching to God's prophetic dealings with the Jewish nation. We know that the focus is shifting from the Gentiles to the Jewish people once again due to the fact that Daniel 1 was written in the language of the Jews (Hebrew), Daniel 2-7 was written in a Gentile language (Aramaic) with Daniel 8-12 switching back to the language of the Jews once again. 

So what? Why are the facts above important for you to know dear reader? Here is why: Daniel 7-8 is a unit that gives you God's prophetic clock for history through two sets of lenses: His dealings with the world system of the Gentiles (Daniel 7) and His dealings with the Jewish nation (Daniel 8) will regulate how He deals with the world from Daniel's day up until Christ's return. 

The theme of overcoming in Daniel & 1 John
Daniel 7-8 deals with details, visions and prophecies about two general eras: the time from Daniel's day up until the days of Christ's first coming and then the final seven year period (the Great Tribulation) that will lead up to Christ's Second coming. To go beyond those general descriptions would exceed the purposes of today's blog. However we can say this: that whether through the Gentile lens of Daniel 7 or through the Jewish Lens of Daniel 8, the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ will crush the regimes of men and rebellion of Satan's man - the Anti-Christ. The faith of the Christian is reinforced by and rooted in the Author and Finisher of faith - Jesus Christ. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

The truths we see in Daniel are the similar truths we see in the book of 1 John.  The Apostle John writes his final words of the book of 1 John. What will overcome the allure of this world - our faith. John lays out at the close of 1 John 5 the Christian's three confidences for overcoming this world: namely the confidence of scripture (1 John 5:13); the confidence of prayer (1 John 5:14-15) and our confidence in Christ's our salvation (1 John 5:16-21).